Heart & Soul: The Meeting (Heartland Series)

by Nicola C. Pries

  ~ 5 ~

  When Sam awoke the next morning, she was sure a percussion band had taken up residency in her head. This was the reason she didn’t drink. She didn’t do well with hangovers and this was one hell of a hangover. How much did I drink?

  Putting her hands on either side of her head, Sam carefully rolled onto her back, wincing when her alarm made it’s presence known. Reaching out, she smacked the offending device with her hand to shut it off, groaning loudly when the sharp movement jolted her body, setting of a fresh round of drums.

  She knew never to drink on a work night. It only made her sluggish the next day, added to the fact that when she’d been drinking to this extent, all she wanted to do was sleep it off. Only she knew that it wasn’t an option. She had to be at work in just over an hour.

  Dragging herself out of bed, Sam slowly made her way through to the bathroom. Looking at herself in the mirror, she groaned again at her reflection. She’d not taken off her make up the night before and the mascara she’d worn was now smeared around her eyes. Great look Sam.

  Switching on the shower, Sam shucked off her nightdress, frowning when she couldn’t actually remember getting changed into the garment when she’d got home the night before. Damn, she couldn’t even remember getting home. Surely she’d not had that much to drink.

  Glancing back into her bedroom, Sam saw her black dress was folded neatly over the back of a chair and her shoes were upright underneath it. Her purse was hanging from the handle of her closet and her cell phone was plugged in to the charger and was sat on her bedside table.

  Sam narrowed her eyes starting to get suspicious as she went back into her room and pulled on her robe. If she was drunk enough not to remember getting home, there was no way she’d have been able to have arranged things so neatly. What on earth was going on?

  As Sam surveyed her room, she turned towards the door. Coffee. She could smell coffee. Opening the bedroom door, and doing her best impression of a sniffer dog, Sam went to seek out coffee. She rounded the corner into the living room, wincing slightly when she saw the drapes were open fully and the bright light from the morning sun wasn’t helping the pain in her head.

  “Morning sunshine.”

  Sam span around to her left when she heard the voice, seeing Dominic leaning against her kitchen counter, a mug of coffee in his hand as he poured one for her. It all made sense now. Dominic must have ensured she got home safely and, if the folded blankets on the back of her couch were anything to go by, he’d stayed over.

  Walking towards him, she accepted the mug he offered her and inhaled the hot beverage. Coffee had always been one of her weaknesses and Dominic knew that. She stayed quiet until she’d taken her first couple of sips before she looked up and smiled.

  “Thank you for getting me home last night. I don’t remember much after we danced.”

  Dominic laughed at her words, stopping suddenly when he saw her grimace at the loud noise.

  “Suffering this morning huh? I’m not surprised the amount you put away last night. You’d had several glasses before you even started dancing, good job staying upright by the way, then you had two more when we sat back down.”

  “And who’s fault was that? You know I can’t handle my drink.”

  “Hey, don’t blame me baby girl. I didn’t force those drinks down your neck. You were in a drinking mood and you only get like that when you’re trying to forget something.”

  Sam listened to his words and saw the meaning in his eyes. He was concerned, which is why he helped her home and why he had slept on the couch.

  She’d only ever gotten that drunk once before, her last night in New York. She was leaving behind the only life she’d ever known to start a new life in Canada. All her friends and family were in New York. They meant the world to her but there was something else that she wanted to get away from and she’d known the only way to do it was to move away where no one, except for Dominic, knew her secrets.

  “You know, I can’t for the life of me understand why you would want to forget a meeting with Mr Love Machine. You know, I’ve read kiss and tell articles from women who claim he’s a real animal in the bedroom.”

  Sam’s eyes widened as she sipped her coffee. Details about Alistair’s prowess in the bedroom was not the kind of thing she wanted to hear about, especially when her imagination was doing a damn fine job on it’s own of doing just that. Placing her half full coffee mug on the counter, Sam turned back towards her bedroom, hoping Dominic hadn’t noticed the blush on her cheeks.

  “I need a shower.” Sam called over the shoulder as she vanished into her room.

  Leaning against the door, she silently cursed Dominic for putting the images of Alistair back into her head. She’d managed to go for a full fifteen minutes without a single thought of him, but now he was well and truly back.

  Dropping her robe onto the floor, Sam went through to the bathroom. Before she climbed in the shower, she reached into the cabinet and pulled out a couple of aspirin. Filling a glass with water, she swallowed the pills then gulped down the remainder of the contents, only now realising how dehydrated she felt. Hopefully by the time it came for her to leave for work, the aspirin would have kicked in to ease the pain in her head and the shower would make her feel human again. She could hope, right?

  oOo

  As his car weaved it’s way through the Downtown traffic, Alistair was flicking through the information Chris had sent him the night before. He’d read the information probably a dozen times and he’d finally decided on how he should proceed. He’d sent Chris an email at some ridiculously early hour thanking him for his research and letting him know his plans and what he intended to do. He’d also fired off a couple more, one to his realtor and another to his personal banking manager. He had no doubt that they were efficient enough to put his plans into action immediately.

  Not being with Samantha wasn’t a scenario he was willing to entertain. He didn’t know what it was about the stunning redhead that had grabbed his attention so strongly, but he wasn’t about to argue with the fact that his body wanted her, badly.

  He hadn’t slept the night before, at least not for any length of time. All he’d been able to think about was her in that little black dress and what it would have felt like to have her body grinding against his as they’d danced, not caring who saw them.

  Samantha was the kind of woman men gave up everything for, and he had a lot to give up. Was it foolish of him to think this way? Probably. Was is stupid of him to serious entertain the idea? Definitely. But that didn’t stop his mind from running through all the possibilities.

  Placing his tablet on the seat next to him, Alistair grabbed his cell phone, seeing he had three missed calls, two from Christopher, one from a withheld number. Hitting the call button, he waited for Christopher to answer.

  “Hey buddy, where are you?”

  Straight and to the point. Alistair had come to expect nothing less from Chris.

  “I’m Downtown why?”

  “Are you following up on that information I sent you?”

  “I might be. Why’d you ask?”

  Alistair was getting a little curious about all the questions his friend was asking him, especially seeing as the line was now silent and all he could hear was muffled voices, almost as if Chris had covered the mouthpiece so he couldn’t hear. It was several more moments before Chris came back on the line.

  “Let’s just say you might want to reconsider, at least for today anyway.”

  “What aren’t you telling me Chris and what’s with all the muffled voices?”

  “Al, someone broke into our offices last night.”

  “Okay. That bad news, sure, but how does that affect me?”

  “We came in this morning and nothing was out of place. It was only when I logged in to my email account that I noticed the discrepancy.”

  Alistair signed down the phone. Maybe he’d have to reconsider the straight and to the point part of Chris’ personality. He sure was
n’t being that now.

  “Chris, get to the part where this affects me.”

  “Bud, you know that I keep my emails under password protection. Any emails that I send to you are backed up to my home computer and the deleted from the account and the hard drive. Well, I noticed this morning that the one that I sent you last night was still in the trash folder. The one you sent me this morning was in my inbox showing as it had been read, but not by me.”

  “So? What does that mean?”

  “What it means is that someone hacked through my security and accessed my email account. No one else’s was touched. Apart from the basics, the only thing that I do for this company that’s of any importance is help secure your safety. Someone was after information on you Alistair, and it looks like they got all the information I sent through to you last night, including what you plan on doing today.”

  “So you’re saying that if I head there I could be heading into what? An ambush? A press mob? You’re gonna have to be more specific here Chris ‘cause I’m almost there now.”

  “I don’t know bud. It may be something as simple as a particularly resourceful reporter trying to get information for a story or it could be something more sinister. We have no way of knowing, but it definitely looks like that email is the only thing that was accessed.”

  Alistair sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. The reason he’d gone with that security company was because they had a good reputation and he trusted Chris with his life. He knew his friend wouldn’t be giving him this information unless he thought he needed to know, and he was right, it was probably someone after a juicy story that just got a little over zealous.

  “Thanks for letting me know Chris. I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

  With those words Alistair ended the call and sat back in his seat. For the next few minutes he debated whether to tell his driver to turn around and head back to the hotel. He then added in the possibility of getting to see Samantha again and the decision was made. Stuffing his cell into his pants pocket, Alistair stared out the window as his driver made his way to his destination.

  oOo

  Feeling almost human again, Sam strode through the doors of the Heartland building. After her shower and another large mug of coffee, the aspirin had started to kick in and she felt like she would be able to make it through the day in one piece.

  Dominic had left before she’d finished her shower, leaving her a little note on the kitchen counter telling her to finish the coffee and he would call her tonight. Part of her had been grateful that he’d gone before she’d finished. She knew that he would keep mentioning Alistair and she didn’t need to him to keep reminding her about the one man who she didn’t need to be reminded off. No matter how hard she tried not to think about him, she’d see or hear something that would remind her of him and there he was, right at the forefront of her mind yet again.

  Smiling at the security guard, Sam walked through the security barriers with ease, only to be met by what she could only describe as chaos in the main foyer.

  There were people everywhere. The Heartland building was the workplace of hundreds of people and it seemed like all of them were down in the foyer at that very moment. Slowing her pace, she looked at the gathered crowds until she saw someone she recognised. Hurrying over, she grabbed Becky by the arm and the blond turned to face her.

  “What’s going on? I’ve never seen so many people down here at the same time.”

  “Oh hey Sam. You’re never going to believe what’s happening.”

  Rolling her eyes at the woman’s words, she almost had to bite her tongue to stop the bitchy remark from crossing her lips. Hangover’s made her irritable and whilst the headache was starting to fade, her irritation was still at defcon one.

  “So, you gonna tell me?” She asked.

  “Apparently, the penthouse has been sold and you’re never gonna guess who to.”

  Sam waited patiently, hoping that the look she would pick up on the look she was giving her and spill the information she was obviously bursting to tell her.

  “A movie star!! A proper Hollywood movie star. Can you believe it?”

  Sam almost gasped at Becky’s words. That would certainly explain the crowds that had gathered. Movie stars were ten a penny in places like Los Angeles and New York. Sure, Toronto had their fair shares of big names visit them, but she knew it could only be a huge star to get this kind of reaction.

  Chewing her lip, she began to wonder who it could be. She knew who she hoped it would be, but she didn’t see how that was possible. Toronto wasn’t his home. His family were from Montreal. There was no need for him to have a permanent residence here. Still, she couldn’t deny that the thought of him living so close to where she came to work every day sent a shot of pure heat right between her thighs.

  At she started to get lost in her thoughts, scores of people began pushing past her and surged towards the doors. She only now noticed, but the bulk of the people there were women, which meant the movie star was more than likely a man.

  Turning, she watched as the woman jostled for position, smiling at the thought of this poor man being mobbed by all these women. Hands were being raised in the air and screams echoed around the walls. How on earth did actors put up with this every day? She guessed it came with the territory and they eventually got used to it, still, it she thought is must be overwhelming.

  Grinning at all of the women who were vying for the attention of whoever it was that had obviously just walked through the doors, Sam waited near the back. She didn’t fancy being in the crush of bodies that seemed to be getting more and more aggressive. Jesus, women could be vicious when they wanted something badly enough.

  Turning, she headed towards the elevators, vaguely hearing two deep masculine voices asking people to make way for whoever it was they were trying to escort through the crowds. Pushing the call button, the elevator doors slid open after a few moments and she stepped inside, the screams of the woman getting louder as the movie star got deeper into the building.

  When the doors begin to slide shut, she leant against the railing, jumping when a large hand grabbed one of the doors, stopping their progress. She just stared open mouthed as the huge guy grinned at her. His long blond hair was tied back at the nape of his neck and the way he looked at her, his brown eyes sparkling, told her that he knew something she didn’t. What on earth was going on?

  oOo

  Alistair sat in his car two blocks from the Heartland building. He’d circled the block twice, seeing that his friend had been right. The crowds that had gathered inside the building were ridiculous. On the second drive by, he saw that people outside had started to notice the commotion and were waiting to see what was happening. There was no way he’d be able to make it through that crowd in one piece, seeing as most of the crowd were women.

  Checking his watch, he saw that it had been almost thirty minutes since he’d called Chris again, telling him to get his ass down there with one of his best guys. He knew they’d be there any minute and, sure enough, as if on cue, he heard the low rumble of the tank they’d used the night before in the distance, then saw Chris easily manoeuvre the car into the empty space behind him.

  Within seconds, the doors of his car opened and Chris and another guy almost as big as his friend jumped in. When the doors were closed and the large men were seated, Alistair realised who the other guy was.

  “Anthony?”

  “Hey there bro.”

  Alistair couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face as he leaned over and took his little brother’s outstretched hand. He’d not seen him in close to three years. He was no longer the young man that Alistair remembered. He’d shot up a good few inches and bulked up even more. They shared the same dark hair and blue eyes, inherited from their mother, but Anthony wore his closely cropped to his head.

  Anthony had always been the fitness fanatic out of the two of them, spending more time in the gym in one day than he did in a week, and it sho
wed. Alistair knew that if his brother ever wanted to take a stab at being an actor, movie studios would jump at the chance to sign him. He had both the looks and the physique to make it in the industry. Having both of the Lockwood brothers in the same movie would definitely be a big thing.

  “When did you get back into town? Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”

  Alistair watched as his brother checked his watch.

  “Let’s see, I landed a little over an hour ago. I called Chris here to see if he had any work going at his security firm until I get settled. He said he’d let me know. A little while later he called to say you needed a little extra backup, so here I am. It’s good to see you big brother.”

  “You too. Are you back to stay? Do mom and dad know?”

  Alistair watched his brother laugh at his stream of questions. He knew he was firing them at him at breakneck speed, but he’d been out of the country for almost three years with only an occasional email to let everyone know he was still alive and well. They had some catching up to do.